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Revenue Bill 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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Hollinger Corp. 
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Copy 1 



IlEVElSrUE BILL. 



SPEECH 



HON. CHARLES H. MARTIN, 



IN THE 



HOUSE OF llEPPvESENTATIVES, 



'^ Apeil, 1898. 



1898. 









68498 






^ SPEECH 



HON. CHARLES H. MAETIN, 



On the bill (H. R. 10100) to provide ways and means to meet war expenditures, 

Mr. MARTIN said: 

Mr. Speaker: I have been a member of Congress for three 
years, and have never delivered a speech nor printed a single word 
in the Record; hence no man can justly charge me with having 
abused the privileges of the floor or the courtesy of the Record. 
Because I knew that other gentlemen could talk so much more 
forcibly and eloquently than myself, I have preferred to be a pas- 
sive listener rather than an active debater. But, sir, my deep in- 
terest in the sufferings of the people of Cuba will not permit me 
longer to remain silent. I have not risen, however, to make a 
sensational speech, except only in so far as the naked and una- 
dorned facts in this case are in themselves extraordinary, start- 
ling, and sensational. 

But if God will give me strength I shall make an American, 
speech, for I love America as I love no other land. I love her 
people. I love her blooming hills. I love her smiling valleys. I 
love her rock-bound coasts. I love her rugged mountains. Hove 
her deep and dark blue skies. And I love the name of liberty, 
for which American pati'iots shed their blood at King's Moun- 
tain. Lexington, and Bunker Hill. I love it so I would fain see 
the flag of freedom wave over every nation of the Western World. 
^ Mr. Speaker, if I possessed the pov/er to execute the decree, 
raising my hand to heaven in mute appeal to the God of Battles, 
I would issue this edict: "Cuba must and shall be free " — free as 
America, free as the air that is wafted from our mountain tops, 
"free as our torrents are that leap our rocks, free as our peaks 
that wear their caps of snow in the presence of the sun," and free 
as the American eagle, who, without asking leave, soars above 
the clouds in the clear regions of eternal sunshine, having no mas- 
ter save Him who is the Master of the storm. I wish from the 
bottom of my heart that Cuba may be as that proud bird having 
no master save Him who rides in the cyclone and directs the 
storm. Every inch and every ounce of me is American, •• native 
here, and to the manner born." 

If I should be cut up into little pieces no larger than the twenty- 
fifth division of an inch, every piece would be for freedom and 
America, yea, every fiber of my flesh from the crown of my head 
to the soles of my feet is for America. America first, America 
last, America and free Cuba forever! But I come claiming no 
monopoly of patriotism, no infallibility of judgment, and speak 
only as an obscure member of this Chamber. Let us view this 
question in the clear, cold light of reason— this important ques- 
tion, which may decide the destiny of nations and the fate of em- 
pires. Then let us ascertain what is the duty of Congress and 
the American people at this fateful hour in their history. The 
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time for irresolution has gone by; the time for parleying has 
passed; the time for diplomacy has departed, but the 'time for 
action is here— prompt, vigorous, and determined action. 

1 know not what course others may adopt: I know not what de- 
duction or conclusion gentlemen may reach, but as for me my 
sentence is for " war." The only peace possible for the United 
States under existing circtmistances is peace with dishonor. Give 
me an honorable peace or give me war! Sir, 70,000,000 people 
have risen m their wrath and said with the voice of a thousand 
thunders, "(xive us peace with no disgrace to our manhood and no 
dishonor to our flag or give us death." These indignant millions 
will fight like tigers and, goaded by the memory of the Maine, 
will strike with sinews of steel and arms of iron. The battle cry 
m every engagement will be, " Soldiers, remember the Maine; 
charge! " And then such a charge as the world has seldom seen will 
shake the earth and drive the Spaniards flving from the field or 
leave them stretched npon the plain and weltering in their blood 
Sir, the message which the enraged people of the United States 
send greeting to Spam is this: "Heaven's unerring arm shall fall 
on you, and blood for blood onr sailors' graves bedew." With 
the single exception of the money changer, the people of the United 
States from Maine to Texas are clamorous for the fray, and unless 
we declare war and give them a chance to avenge the death of 
our murdered sailors and wipe away the insult and dishonor from 
the_ American flag, they will curse the Fifty-fifth Congress till 
their latest breath, and coming to his last resting place pile bitter 
curses on McKinley's grave. Unless we strike this blow at once 
the opportunity which the God of battles has placed before us 
will have passed away and our procrastination will have trans- 
ferred to our enemies the supremacy of the sea. 

A great poet has said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men 
which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." Applying this 
language of Shakespeare to the matter under discussion, there is 
a tide m the affairs of nations Avhich, taken at the flood, leads on 
to victory, but omitted, terminates in defeat and horrible disaster. 
Such a tide m the affairs of this nation is here to day. The flood 
tide of American opportunity has rolled into port, bearing upon 
the bosom of the ocean the vessel with every sail unfurled and 
quivering in the breeze. Shall we, like wise and prudent men 
embrace this God-given opportunity, or shall we, like thoughtless 
little children, lie supinely on our backs and by our inaction trans- 
fer to Spam the dominion of the sea? That is the question. 

"What are the facts in the case? Are they not that in conse- 
quence of the President's weak and vacillating policy Spain has 
outwitted us in diplomacy and caused disaster "to our iSTavy? Sir, 
we have to deal with a foe, false, treacherous, and cowardly, who 
has committed such brutal butchery, such inhuman starvation of 
helpless babes and innocent children, and crimes, which the lips 
of modesty may not mention, as have shocked the civilized world 
and outraged every sense of common decency and humanity. 
Did not Minister de Lome, having received the most flattering 
hospitality of the Chief Executive, afterwards write a private 
letter m which he characterized the President as a low politician, 
and did he not, in the person of the President, insult every Amer- 
ican citizen? 

^ The Administration, however, entered into slow negotiations 
demanding his recall, but before his passports were handed him 
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the Spanish minister cabled his resignation, which Spain promptly 
accepted, and Minister De Lome left this country, not in disgrace 
as he ought to have done, but departed as a Spanish gentleman 
who was but temporarily sojourning here for his pleasure. Just 
as soon as the President heard of the incident, before saying on? 
word to Spain, why did he not send the insulting Spaniard his 
passports immediately? If he had thus acted, we should have 
been spared the humiliation of seeing the iusulter of this nation 
return to his native land with colors fljing and received at home 
amid the applause of his admiring countrymen. 

Furthermore, this policy has resulted in disaster to our Navy. 
It is the same ineffectual plan which was pursued by Mr. Cleve- 
land; and the people all over this country, from the Allegheny to 
the Eocky Mountains, believe that the money power has dictated 
this shilly-shally, wishy-washy, namby-pamby policy. If Mr. 
Cleveland had acted with prom'ptness, Cuba to-day would be free 
as America, enjoying the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness. If that cotton string yonder in the 
White House, who bends this way or that at the behest of some 
power behind the throne, had exhibited in this crisis any back- 
bone and acted with the promptness and courage becoming the 
President of a free and independent people, the battle ship Maine 
would not now be at the bottom of Havana Harbor, a melancholy 
wreck and a sad commentary upon this unfortunate talk-much- 
and-do-nothing policy. The 260 brave American sailors would 
not have become food for vultures and the hungry monsters of 
the deep, nor would the 300,000 unoffending men, women, and 
children have suffered the agonies of a horrible death by starva- 
tion. 

Spain acts promptly, but, alasl alas! America vacillates, and 
dallies, and temporizes, and hedges, and haggles, and shifts, and 
doubles, and dickers, and potters, and parleys, and hesitates, and 
halts, and waits, and waits, and waits, and over the wreck of a 
battle ship and the graves of her dead sailors and dying thousands 
of the concentrados still waits and waits, waits for something to 
turn up when something has already turned up— disaster after 
disaster has turned up— nothing but defeat, disaster, and death. 
Defeat in diplomacy that causes the American cheek to blush with 
shame. Disaster to the best battle ship in the American Navy. 

Disaster, death, and an untimely grave to 266 as brave seamen 
as ever walked a deck or spread a banner to the breeze, death and 
disaster to Cuban maidens and mothers, and starvation to hundreds 
of thousands of helpless women and innocent children. In the 
name of reason and common sense, in the name of all that is high 
and holy, shall we longer pursue a policy which has been attended 
only with defeat, disaster, and death? Ye immortal gods, speed 
the time when, with flying shot and shell, amid the red blaze of 
battle, with the roar of heavy ai-tillery and the ten thousand thun- 
ders of American battle ships, the United States shall drive the 
Spaniards beyond the sea and give to bleeding Cuba her independ- 
ence and freedom I 

Mr. Speaker, I believe with all my soul that the wise course for 
Congress to adopt is to declare war, not next year, not next month, 
not next week, not to-morrow, but to-day. Sir, what is the situa- 
tion? The Spanish torpedo squadron is now sailing across the 
ocean as fast as steam can drive her wheels. What does Spain want 
with torpedo boats at the Island of Porto Rico? Is that last of 

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6 

Spain's misgoverned possessions of the Western Hemisphere in re- 
bellion? Even if they were, they have no navy, and Spain could 
not use that flotilla against Porto Rico, because torpedo boats are 
only used for the destruction of ships. 

Tell me, sir, what need has Spain for such a naval armament 
in her war against the Cuban insurgents? Cuba has no battle 
ship, no cruiser, nor any naval equipment whatsoever. Have the 
Spanish torpedo boats huge wings attached to their sides so that 
they can fly from place to place in Cuba and fight naval battles 
on the dry land? Who ever heard, since the world was made, of 
a naval engagement fought out on the solid, substantial earth? 
If her torpedo boats are thus curiously and ingeniously con- 
ctructed, they would be of great service in the subjugation of in- 
surgent subjects, and would be in demand by all the nations of 
the earth. 

The flying squadron could poise in mid-air over a town and then 
turn loose such a destructive tire with Gatiing guns on the doomed 
city below as to compel immediate surrender to the naval arma- 
ment in the upper regions of the sky. Thus the boats could easily 
demolish one city, and then, flying amid the clouds, hover over 
another, and. razing that to the ground, leave it a pile of ruins, 
and. going from city to city, the dreadful armament could soon lay 
waste a kingdom or devastate an empire. 

But everybody knows that Spain has no such boats, and only 
upon the supposition that they have wings would they be avail- 
able in the prosecution of wars against rebellious siibjects who 
have not a single battle ship. What, then, does Spain want with 
a torpedo squadron? What use can she make of torpedo boats in 
this hemisphere? In the language of the greatest of American 
orators, ''They are meant for us. They can be meant for no 
other. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the'^matter. Gentlemen cry 
peace, peace, but there is no peace. The war has actually begun. " 
These torpedo boats at sea are comparatively harmless,' but once 
landed they become formidable engines of destruction. For this 
reason our battle ships ought long ago to have met them on the 
high seas and sunk the last one of them to the bottom of the deep. 
Not to have done so under existing circumstances has been crimi- 
nal delay and the crowning summit of human folly. 

It is folly of such monstrous and prodigious size as to be amaz- 
ing. How any man of sound mind would allow those formidable 
engines of destruction which are sent against us with hostile in- 
tent to make a long voyage across the sea without once raising 
his little finger to intercept and destroy them is strange, strange, 
surpassing strange! Sir, if that dreadful squadron is allowed to 
land and more of our battle ships are destroyed, those who are 
responsible will be held to a strict account, and the storm of the 
people's wrath will burst in pitiless and overwhelming fury on 
their heads. Lest he might lose a dollar in the event of war, the 
money changer eagerly clutches his bags of cankered gold and 
cries, "Peace, peace, peace; peace at all hazards; peace with dis- 
honor; peace at any price!" 

He looks so saintly and seems so divine, butter would not melt 
in his mouth. His hands are so clean they would not stain a hly's 
cheek, and his soul so pure it would not soil the whitest plume tliat 
ever adorned a seraph's wing. But for his unholy greed of ill- 
gotten gain, one would think he was an angel fresh from the court 
of heaven, sent down to earth as minister plenipotentiary and en- 
voy extraordinary of peace at any price. Away, away with tliat 

3301 



tase and groveling idea of peace with dishonor. It is a seutnnent 
which is unworthy of a first-class monkey and at which a toad Irog 
would turn up his nose. Is not a money changer greater than a 
monkey and more noble than a toad? Mr. Speaker, this Govern- 
ment has truckled to Spain and licked the feet of the money power 
in the vain attempt to negotiate the Spanish-Cuban bond deal 
until we are branded as cowards. This vile epithet is apphea tou3 
at home and abroad. As showing the red-hot indignation of tho 
people and the necessity for an immediate declaration of war, I 
read a clipping from the Washington Times, March 31, 1898, as 
follows: 

Newport, R. I., March SO, 1S9S. 

There is much excitement in Newport to-day over the acts of tmknown 
persons who iast night, under cover of darkness, hung Presulent aicKniiey m 
effigy on an electric pole near the Liberty tree. The pohco cut the dummy 
down and found it bearing this inscription: "William Mckinley— Coward- 
Newport citizens." Law-abiding citizens ha-ve demanded that the police 
search for the offenders and have them prosecuted. 

I have also read in the papers that in Colorado the people not 
only hung President McKinley in effigy, but after cuttmg down 
the dummy, cremated him, and his ashes were scattered to the 
winds. In this state of public indignation , unless war is declared, 
if our people are to be prosecuted for calling Mr. McKinley a 
coward, indictments will have to be preferred against 70,000,000 of 

people. , ,.,-,• J., 

Ton will have to indict every man, woman, and child m the 
United States, and when Gabriel's trump shall sound to call men 
to judgment there will be cases still pending in court. Sir, we 
have betaken ourselves to flight and stained the glory of our flag 
with cowardice when confronted with no more formidable a foe 
than poor little bankrupt Spain; a second-class, nay, not so much, 
a third-rate power, a nation which for three long years has ut- 
terly failed to suppress Gomez and his httle handful of ragged 
followers. In showing the white feather under these humiliating 
circumstances with no greater foe than that bankrupt nation, we 
have achieved the great glory and the imperishable renown of 
being called cowards and made the laughingstock of the world. 
Shame, shame, a bhstering and eternal shame! 

I repeat it, sir, I am for war. If such a disaster had happened 
to an English vessel or to the cruiser of any nation on earth, 
within forty-eight hours it would have leveled Morro Castle to 
the ground. Sir, I want our Government to give notice to all 
the v/orld, from the burning tropics to the frozen poles, that what- 
ever nation insults our flag and murders American sailors in their 
beds and ushers them before their Maker without time to breathe 
a parting prayer will have showered upon her capital the red-hot 
shot and shell of American artillery and the 10,000 thunders of 
American battle ships. What! Are American citizens no better 
than common curs or wild beasts, that they should be butchered 
to make a Spanish holiday, and shall this great Government do 
no more than if so many dogs had been slain? ' ' Forbid it, heaven! 
Forbid it, Almighty God! " 

If while sleeping peacefully beneath the folds of his country s 
flag the American citizen is to be blown to atoms by dynamite; 
if he is to be butchered like a bull to make a Spanish holiday and 
this great Government shall do no more than it a dog had beeu 
killed, where is the boasted a;lory and protection of the American 
flag? He had as well tie a little rag to a stick and let it w£Te 
3301 



LIBKHKY 01- CONUKbbb. 




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above his head as to unfurl that proud banner which hangs above 
the Speaker's chair, for in such a case one would afford as much 
protection as the other. 

Who, sir, woukl care to be an American, who take pride in his 
country's flag, or who enlist in our Army and Navy, when it is 
known all over the wide world that the United States permits her 
loyal citizens to be butchered in cold blood like so many wild 
beasts? And yet the Government sits silently by and simply 
raises her hands in holy horror at the av/f ul thought that war woTild 
hurt the business of the bondholders and the interest of the money 
changers. Oh, Dishonor, Dishonor, then wilt thou have come to 
the United States and perched upon the American flag! Sir, if 
this is the treatment which I and my fellow-men are to receive at 
the hands of this great nation, ' ' I had rather be a dog, and bay the 
moon, " " I had rather be a toad, and live upon the vapours of a dun- 
geon," than to be an American citizen. 

But, sir, it is a proud distinction to be an American, and the 
lives of the humblest American citizens who toil in the shop 
or hold the plow handles are more sacred than if they were so 
many dogs or swine. It was Lamartine who said, ' ' Man is a fallen 
angel, carrying about with him pleasant memories of heaven." 
The poorest man that ever trod the earth has that about him 
which compels my respect, for he bears upon his person, though 
in poverty and rags, the dismantled semblance of the Invisible, 
and stamped upon his brow by unalterable decree is the inde- 
structible and eternal image of God. That image, though dis- 
mantled and defiled, should command respect. Blind is the man 
who sees not in the humblest beggar and vilest tramp that which 
gilds his rags and makes his poverty divine— the blurred linea- 
ments but still ineffaceable image of the great I Am. 

Though our sailors who went down to death were humble men, 
tinknoum to wealth or fame, this Government should defend them 
and protect their widows and orphans just as if they had been 
United States Senators, Membei's of Cong'ress, or gifted orators 
with power to command the admiration of the multitude and the 
applause of listening senates. The cries of their widows and or- 
phans ring in our ears, and the pale, cold lips of those dead sail- 
ors, with mute but matchless eloquence, speak to us from the 
grave. I love my wife, I love my children, I love my country, I 
love my fellow-man, and 1 love the poor, starving Cubans, strug- 
gling for independence and freedom, and Vv-hen their lives and 
liberties are endangered by a foreign or domestic foe I will raise 
this arm and voice in their defense, so help me Almighty God. 

Sir, if the time has come when the American flag does not pro- 
tect and defend American citizens, soldiers, and sailors butchered 
like wild beasts to make a Spanish holiday, then haul that banner 
down, for the stains of dishonor will be wrapped within its folds. 
Take it from the Dome of the Capitol, where it flutters in the breeze, 
for " cowards " inscribed upon the stripes will dim the glory of 
all the stars. Hide it, hide it, for the American will blush to own 
it, and the foreigner will scorn it and spit upon it. Drape it in 
mourning, for its brightest hopes are dead and its boasted glory 
gone. Furl it, furl it, and never let it wave again, for the God- 
dess of Liberty will weep to see it, and hang her head in shame. 
cGOl 



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